I Begin to Say Something
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I have found out how to begin to say something in my own voice.” – Virginia Woolf, Diary, July 26, 1922 Have you begun to say something in your own voice? Our collaborative narrative offers a place to start, to continue, or to return to what you want to claim. In creative response to January’s featured Q, one woman finds herself interwoven with doubt and strength, another resurrects...
We Are the Words
“We are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself.” ― Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being We “are the words” and we are quickened by the truths women have claimed in the past year, echoing a resolute awareness of our creative selves, our collective wisdom, and our legacy. In 2019, we carry forward our shared purpose by expanding our collaborative narrative with The Q, preparing the Waves Anthology for...
Gifts of Fellowship
GIFTS OF FELLOWSHIP In November 2018, we began with the Legacy Fellowship from AROHO founder, Darlene Chandler Bassett. The following December, we rolled out three more Gifts of Fellowship from Esther Cohen, Breena Clarke, and Marsha Pincus. Now, together and building on our shared purpose, we resolve to continue gifts of real help and support for women into 2019. In response to the needs you’ve shared with us in The Q, the...
Mirrors, Trail Finders, and Citizens
“As a woman my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf As we continue to imagine a borderless song-map together, may we mirror one another’s truths and doubts, lose our trail and find it, and claim the light of our dreams. We invite you to read Molly Howes, Alison Hicks, and Monteque Pope-Le Beau’s pensive poetry submissions to “Where I Am From” in full below. ...
Movement and Our Song-Map
This past Monday, I read new poetry by indigenous women, and they made my migratory bones hum. It spoke to the question: What is my deepest need? My instinctive answer is movement. At the Ghost Ranch Retreat 2015, I shared how the white feather can be a symbol for our journey, inspired by the Cherokee Beloved War Women, whose extraordinary courage and compassion merited a swan wing. Here’s what I’ve learned about our...
From Cacophony, I Show Up
“But you exist somewhere. Something of you remains.” – Virginia Woolf, The Waves When Ramona Reeves asked what she could do for herself and others because she didn’t have to wait, she flung open a red tent in Austin. Making space for others often begins with making space for ourselves. How often do we, as women, bring fragments of our own lives together in order to liberate our deepest need like Lauren...
The Outrageous Guarantee
In The Q, the question was posed, “What am I free to do for myself and others because I don’t have to wait?” I thought a lot this summer about this question and what I don’t need permission to do, what I don’t need to wait for, as a creative woman. After returning from a summer writing conference, I decided to host a gathering of women in Austin, a small gathering. The idea started with this...
Something Rising Beneath Me
“And in me too the wave rises. It swells; it arches its back. I am aware once more of a new desire, something rising beneath me.” – Virginia Woolf, The Waves In response to Breena Clarke’s recent Waves on making space for ourselves and others and our ongoing invitation for shared dialogue, creative women around the world are submitting their words through The Q and participating in #womenmakewaves. While...
Make Space for Ourselves
Serendipity is the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. I’ve always liked this idea and I think some of the best things in my life have unfolded in just this way. In response to the dialogue in The Q, I’ve pondered the question of how my creative identity gives me confidence to branch out and build space for others in my life and how serendipity and confidence have led me to co-found The Hobart...
We Assemble and Rise
“The wave has tumbled me over, head over heels, scattering my possessions, leaving me to collect, to assemble, to head together, to summon my forces, rise and confront ….” – Virginia Woolf, The Waves In response to our invitation for shared dialogue, creative women around the world are participating in #womenmakewaves. We are aware that Twitter is one venue of engagement among many, so we are grateful for...
A Part of You and You and You
We all draw different words from each other and are a part of each other. We are honored to share an excerpt of “Mother” by Carolyn Gall. We invite you to read her full work below. In the spirit of Carolyn’s call, we want to take a special opportunity to invite you to become a part of a shared dialogue. Comment, forward, or creatively respond to women’s words and art shared here in digital Waves on...
We Beat Our Breasts and Hum
“We must pull ourselves up out of the chairs. We must find our coats. We must go.” – Virginia Woolf, The Waves In the purl of news, we bring our hearts and minds to bear witness upon the events in our world, past and present, our own and others. Whether at home or on the borders, we recognize distinct experiences and our voices respond in letters and art, going in the direction we are pulled, whether by grief, love,...
Mend the Part of the World Within Our Reach
“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” – Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Para la traducción al español desplácese hacia abajo. In The Q, a question was posed for me, What am I free to do for myself and others because I don’t have to wait? I understand reciprocity is sometimes misconstrued as scorekeeping, but instead it is...
Through Our Mothers
“We think back through our mothers if we are women.” Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929) On the heels of Mother’s Day, we want to honor all creative women, recognizing our stories are born from women before us, nurtured among us, and inherited by those who come after us. Amidst what we can do and hope to do for each other, we remember our collective need for validation remains largely nominal. Together, to that end, we...
And in me too the wave rises
“And in me too the wave rises.”—Virginia Woolf, The Waves Excerpts from our earliest digital Waves. To receive our bi-monthly Waves publication, share your email address with us.
“making art is like blindly seeing…”
“…the shape of what you don’t yet know.” —Teresita Fernandez
“sacrifice nothing to seemliness”
All is rather rapt, simple, quick, effective—except for my blundering on at The Waves…Still I am not satisfied. I think there is something lacking. I sacrifice nothing to seemliness. I press to my centre. I don’t care if it all is scratched out. And there is something there. I incline now to try violent shots…shouldering my way ruthlessly—and then, if nothing comes of it—anyhow I have examined the possibilities. ...
“my courage always rises”
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me. —Jane Austen
the reach of a poem
“In Chinese time, it’s circular – it’s not even circular, it can go backwards! It can go backwards, it can go forward. It goes all over the place, it looks more like an infinity sign, like that. So there is a myth that poets have that my reader will come a thousand years from now. . . . Poem can also reach reader born 1,000 years before the poem. . . . An act of love I do this morning saves a life on a far future battlefield....
a season of conscious waiting
“The absolutely wrong thing to attempt when we’ve lost focus is to rush about struggling to pack it all back together again. Rushing is not the thing to do…Sitting and rocking is the thing to do. Patience, peace, and rocking renew ideas. Just holding the idea and the patience to rock it are what some women might call a luxury. Wild Woman says it is a necessity.” Clarissa Pinkola Estes, from Women Who Run With...
UPCOMING OPEN STUDIOS
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SUMMER WAVES | 2024
A global virtual adventure rich in inspiration and sisterhood.
This August, details coming soon
Zoom-enabled
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With eyes and arms and hearts open, we will recognize each other by the work we do to feel and live, to speak and create from that feeling, so that others may find ways back to their own hearts. | Irena Praitis, California, USA
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